Feeding and Feedback in NGC 4151 from GEMINI Near Infrared Integral Field Spectroscopy

TL;DR

This study uses Gemini near-infrared integral field spectroscopy to map the NLR of NGC 4151, revealing outflows in ionized gas and distinct molecular gas structures that trace AGN feedback and feeding.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed two-dimensional kinematic and morphological analysis of both ionized and molecular gas in NGC 4151's NLR.

Findings

Ionized gas follows bi-cone morphology with outflows at ~600 km/s.

Molecular gas shows distinct morphology and velocities near systemic, indicating feeding.

Ionized and molecular gases trace feedback and feeding processes, respectively.

Abstract

We discuss two-dimensional mapping of the near-infrared emission-line intensity distributions and kinematics of the narrow-line region (NLR) of NGC 4151, obtained with the Gemini Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrograph, with a projected spatial resolution of ~8pc. The ionized gas intensity distribution follows the projected bi-cone morphology observed in previous optical narrow-band images, and its kinematics reveal outflows along the bi-cone. We propose a kinematic model in which the gas in the NLR moves at a velocity of ~600 km s^-1 up to ~100 pc from the nucleus. A completely distinct morphology and kinematic structure is observed for the molecular gas, which avoids the region of the bi-cone and has velocities close to systemic, and is consistent with an origin in the galaxy plane. The molecular gas thus traces the AGN feeding, while the ionized gas traces its feedback.